Teaching Assistant Elaine McKay, 58, Accused Of Ripping Towel From 15-Year-Old Boy Before Having Sex With Him

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Elaine McKay, 58, is accused of starting a sexual relationship with the 15-year-old while working at the 1,700-pupil Clacton Coastal Academy in Essex

A teaching assistant accused of seducing a pupil four decades her junior visited his home, tore off his towel after a shower and had sex with him, a court today heard. Elaine McKay, 58, is accused of starting a sexual relationship with the 15-year-old while working at the 1,700-pupil Clacton Coastal Academy in Essex.

The married teaching assistant allegedly swapped sexy texts with the teen, and sent him photographs of herself naked and posing suggestively with a cucumber and a sex toy. The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said the pair had sex after McKay visited his home to drop around a cake to his family, Chelmsford Crown Court in Essex heard.

His relatives were not in, and the teen - then around 15 years old - went and had a shower. He said that on his return McKay was waiting in his bedroom, ripped off his towel and had sex with him. In a video police interview played to jurors, the teen said: "No one was in and it was just me.

"I just said, 'come in and have a tea' or something like that. I made her tea. I got in the shower, I got out of the shower and she is in my bedroom. I just had the towel around me. I walked straight into my room and she was there. She just took the towel off me. We just had sex."

He said the teaching assistant pleasured him and then they had sex on his bed. The teen said McKay had begun sending him sexy texts and messages on Facebook and WhatsApp in the months leading up to them having sex. He said: "It was a little joke texting and it started from there."

He said she sent him pictures of herself naked and posing in pink knickers and thongs, and he sent her naked photographs of himself back. Asked by the police officer if there is anything that stands out about McKay, he said "she's old". He said the pair were not in a meaningful relationship and it was just "a bit of fun".

And he revealed McKay was "worried" about what might happen if she was discovered. Jurors heard that she sent the teen a text which read: "Feeling guilty". He replied: "loool (laugh out loud) so when you come around next you should actually suck my d***."

Wearing a black trouser suit and black shirt, McKay, of Banister Close, Clacton, Essex, listened intently and stared at the video as his evidence was played. She denies intentionally touching a boy aged 15 by having full sex with him and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. She has admitted causing a child to look at sexually explicit images.

The court heard that McKay accepts that there may have been some inappropriate behaviour between the pair but this never amounted to sexual activity.

The teen denied that he lied about having sex with McKay because he was "acting the big man" and showing off in front of his friends. Jurors heard that when police first asked about the alleged affair he denied it and said he was having "boy banter" at school and joked that he would have sex with McKay.

But he agreed he had been telling officers a "pack of lies" originally and only later told police the truth that he had sex with the teaching assistant. Maria Dineen, defending, said: "Do you sometimes do things or say things with your friends to try to look big or act big?" The teen replied: "No".

She pressed on: "When you told your friends that you had sex with Mrs McKay were you just acting the big man?" She added: "Was it just bravado - putting on a front? Putting on a show? Pretending something had happened when it hadn't?" He again replied: "No."

The defence barrister claimed the teen had "started the ball rolling" by sending McKay explicit pictures and "began to pester her" to send them back. But the alleged victim said she started it. And quizzed about why he could not remember exactly when they had sex, he explained: "I ain't going to want to keep that in my head."

McKay told the schoolboy's family they did not have a sexual relationship - and claimed a suggestive photograph of her with a cucumber was a snap of her making dinner, jurors heard. One of the teenager's family members broke down in tears in the witness box as she told how she believed the teaching assistant when she denied claims she was having an inappropriate relationship with the schoolboy.

She said she was first alerted to the possibility by another parent who heard about the "compromising" photograph with a cucumber. Richard Scott, prosecuting, said: "That photo concerning the cucumber, was there any explanation given to you about that?"

The female relative, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said: "She told me that she was preparing a salad for her dinner that evening and she was cutting up pieces of food, putting them in her mouth, and taking a photo of what she was preparing for her dinner.

"I got quite emotional during that discussion. I told her that I wouldn't be doing my job as a (relative) if I didn't question her about this." She said she believed the teaching assistant because both she and the schoolboy denied the claims. But she briefly sobbed and wiped tears away from her eyes with a tissue as she told the court the schoolboy later revealed he had sex with the 58-year-old when she popped round to drop off a friendship cake for his family.

She said: "I don't know the full extent of it to this day. He told me we weren't in on that day, Mrs McKay turned up with a friendship cake to share. He said to her I wouldn't be long, put the kettle on. He left Mrs McKay in the living room with her tea and when he came out of the shower she was in his bedroom, she pulled off his towel and he was naked. He just said they had sex."